Paul McCubbrey

DNF :( — one scene put me off this book

Revisado: 05-29-23

I was in the middle of a buildup to what could have been an interesting scene of Locke meeting with his cutthroat nominal boss whose rules he’d been secretly flouting. I was looking forward to the inevitable battle of wits it entailed. Then it was interrupted by a character we’d just met torturing a non-character we’d just met for information I didn’t care about to advance a plot that no force on heaven or earth could invest me in. This scene was too gruesome for me to handle, but worse than that, it was uninteresting. I wanted nothing more than for the Grey King to storm into the room and kill everyone present just to discard that unnecessary plot thread and get the book focused on the actually interesting heist part (I’d prefer Locke to live, but if he has to die for that to happen, so be it).

Yeah, I could have scrubbed forward to skip past it, but I didn’t care that much about the rest of the book, and this scene’s inclusion told me that Scott Lynch was not interested in the same parts of the plot that actually interested me. A great story for some I’m sure, and well-told by the aptronymous Michael Page, but I have to be honest and give it two stars — one for Locke, and one for Father Chains.

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Ursula did it again

Revisado: 05-16-23

A unique and enthralling tale well told, as expected from Le Guin. The complex exploration of religious devotion, choice versus comfort, and the lasting effects of childhood conditioning & trauma make for a harrowing journey where you find yourself both rooting for Tenar and just wanting her to stop, for her own sake. Shame what the miniseries did to her.

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It does the DID thing

Revisado: 11-14-17

Just don't read this if you give a damn about people with dissociative identity disorder.

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3 books, 3 genres

Revisado: 10-03-17

Every Jane & Vincent novel is a whole new genre within historical fantasy. It's actually rather incredible on its own. This time it's a political thriller with a courtroom cross-examination scene worthy of a good (but not great) Ace Attorney trial. Because that's what pops into my head when I think, "Jane Austen with magic, book 3".

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Revisado: 05-10-17

Oh my god this book

The characters and plot and setting and all that garbage are good

But oh my god the BOOK ITSELF - the themes and ideas that pervade it - are unimaginably cool and apocalyptic

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Holy fuck this book

Revisado: 01-17-17

Like seriously it's basically the single greatest book I've ever read and now I regret every other five-star rating I've ever given a book because this is a million times better than anything else in infinitely many ways

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An incredible, unique story

Revisado: 10-06-16

I don't usually read books with a large focus on explicit romance. This was outside my comfort zone. But it more than made up for that in sheer awesomeness.

At times it felt like there were two stories going on — the three way romance and the conflict with a race of all-powerful fanfic authors — but that worked to its advantage; every time I started to predict beats of one story, the other one cropped up, which meant it could repeatedly surprise me. The characters are complex enough to be relatable and yet simple enough to be understandable. The descriptions are eloquent when they need to be. The occasional spice of humor is just enough to stay engaging without becoming a self-parody.

Also? It gives a whole new meaning to the term "love triangle."

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